$15M WTA Tour Campaign Focuses on Players, Targets Casual Fans
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour yesterday unveiled its global media campaign in London. As reported by SportsBusiness Journal in April, the tour is spending $15M over three years on a print and TV campaign featuring its top players. The theme of the campaign, via Grey Advertising, N.Y., is "Looking for a Hero?" Players are seen in the TV spots in street clothes in cities like Rome, Beijing and Miami, and then they rush off to transform as hero tennis players. Their mission is to play in the first of three season-ending championships in Doha, Qatar. The campaign is by far the largest in the history of the WTA, which has been serving up significant sponsorship deals that have enabled the circuit to fund the ads. Also, Doha is paying $14M annually for the rights to the championships (Daniel Kaplan, SportsBusiness Journal). Ad Dir Matthieu Mantovani said that the campaign, which was filmed in entirely on location in Rome, “draws inspiration from films like ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ ‘Ocean’s 11,’ and ‘Mission Impossible.’” In N.Y., Claire Atkinson reports the campaign marks “the first major global effort” to market the WTA since it was founded in '73. The campaign comes “at a time when the audience for women’s tennis -- at least in the [U.S.] -- has shown signs of slipping.” WTA Tour Chair & CEO Larry Scott: “We’re trying to convert casual or intermittent tennis fans.” The campaign’s TV ads will first appear in the U.S. at the start of the U.S. Open, which begins August 25. The TV ads will run on Eurosport, ESPN and CNN (N.Y. TIMES, 6/19). Scott: “The campaign crystallises everything we mean when we speak about taking the sport to the next level”(Manchester GUARDIAN, 6/19).
VENUS SIGHTING: In a special to the LONDON TIMES, WTA member Venus Williams writes, “Before heading off to [Wimbledon], Serena and I shot a commercial for one of our new sponsors that will begin running at the end of this summer. We did the commercial with two American football stars and it is VERY funny.” Venus also is “announcing a new photography book project" that combines tennis and fashion. Williams: "The concept was developed with acclaimed fashion photographer Koto Bolofo. … It is a collection of photos that capture on-court images at tournaments and off-court photos” (LONDON TIMES, 6/19).
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